The trinidad Guardian / The 2017/18 four-day regional tournament bowled off last weekend with the Red Force coming up against the Barbados Pride. Guyana taking on Jamaica and the Windward and Leewards clashing in the other match. The T&T team has not won the regional tournament since 2006 and to be honest I think this season is also going to be challenging. In recent years, we have not been able to field a settled team. We have rotated captains like a sou-sou hand as the selectors can’t seem to find a true leader in the ranks.

I am extremely happy to see Dinesh Ramdin back at the helm as not only do I think he is a good leader, but he seems to be able to motivate the team more than anyone else. I think the West Indies selectors have done the T&T squad a huge favour as Ramdin wants to prove that he is still the best wicket/keeper batsman in the region by a long way.

Ramdin has already scored a hundred and a half-century in his first two innings and I am sure his dogged determination to show up the West Indies selectors will see him score a lot of runs during the tournament. I just hope he does not take a note out of his pocket for Courtney Browne.

The rest of the team is quite young and inexperienced to start the tournament and I am hoping the Captain can help the likes of Isaiah Rajah, Amir Jangoo, Jeremy Solozano and Tion Webster along the way. I have said on numerous occasions that Webster is one for the future but unfortunately he failed in both innings in the game vs Barbados, but I hope the selectors try to persist with him and the coaches assist him with his batting failures.

He is an attacking player by nature and he now has to learn how to build an innings. He seems at ease when playing in the National league but the standard of regional cricket is much higher and he must learn to curb his natural attacking instincts and to be more watchful. I think all the batsmen are extremely capable and with Ramdin’s ability to guide them I expect the young men to come good.

My concern is the Red Force bowling attack-unfortunately I am not seeing real match winners. What I do see is good medium-pace bowlers all capable of picking up wickets in Marlon Richards, Roshon Primus and Webster. However, we have not been able to produce a similar pairing of Bishop and Gray with real pace for a number of years and the board needs to get out there and find some youngsters with raw pace and let us try to develop them. In the spin bowling department a lot is going to be expected of Imran Khan and Bryan Charles but I don’t see them being devastating and blowing away teams with bounce, turn and guile and winning games for the Force. Khan has been around for a long time and is a useful leggie but he is no Yasir Shah or Sunil Narine. Charles is learning his trade and I am hopeful that the coaches call on some of our past cricketers to come and spend an evening or two with the youngsters to lend some guidance.

With the West Indies selectors on the lookout for new blood, the incentive is there for the Red Force players as after the first round some old names that have been tried and tested are still cropping up and I hope the selectors try new blood in the test arena. I understand later on in the tournament some of our T20 stars will make themselves available and I truly hope that our selectors pick the best available team at that time; anything else will be an injustice to the nation.

san fernando Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley prayed with members of the Muslim community and distributed zakat (charity) to the needy as he celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr at two masjids in San Fernando yesterday. He attended the Eid services on an invitation from Minister of Local Government Kazim Hosein, who is also referred to as a…

gasparillo The mother of a disabled child was shot dead inside her apartment in Gasparillo yesterday. Ornella Philips, 28, was shot once in the chest. Her body was discovered lying in the living room around 10 a.m. The country’s murder toll now stands at 243. Her eight-year-old daughter, Kayla, has cerebral palsy and depends…

ISTANBUL (AP): Turkish police stopped activists for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex rights from gathering in large numbers for an LGBT Pride event in Istanbul yesterday, but smaller groups made impromptu press statements, defying a ban imposed by the governor. Organisers of the 2017 Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride had vowed to march in central Taksim…

LONDON (AP): The list of high-rise apartment towers in Britain that have failed fire-safety tests grew to 60, officials said yesterday, revealing the mounting challenge the government faces in the aftermath of London’s Grenfell Tower fire tragedy. All of the buildings for which external cladding samples were so far submitted failed combustibility tests, Communities Secretary…

BAHAWALPUR (AP): Alerted by an announcement over a mosque’s loudspeaker that an overturned tanker truck had sprung a leak, scores of villagers raced to the scene with fuel containers yesterday to gather the oil. Then the wreck exploded, engulfing people in flames as they screamed in terror. At least 153 men, women and children were…

WASHINGTON (AP): Making a final push, United States President Donald Trump said he doesn’t think congressional Republicans are “that far off” on a health overhaul to replace “the dead carcass of Obamacare”. Expressing frustration, he complained about “the level of hostility” in government and wondered why both parties can’t work together on the Senate bill…

While reliving the horrors experienced by so many families after another spate of bizarre violence across the country last week, I couldn’t help but picture Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett’s rictus grin plastered on television screens while the elderly and even suckling babes were being gruesomely slaughtered inside their homes. While the rest of us were…

News day / CARLA BRIDGLAL AS PETROTRIN restructures in an attempt to return to profitability, the state oil company needs to manage and in some cases mitigate the power and influence of two of its biggest stakeholders: government and the Oilfield Workers Trade Union. “We have a number of stakeholders very visible in Petrotrin’s direction…

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News day / Nickolai Madray The 54th edition of the Southern Games came to a conclusion yesterday evening, at Guaracara Park, Point-A- Pierre, as hundreds of supporters gathered to view a series of sporting activities at the nation’s refinery. The games were sponsored by Petrotrin, TECU Credit Union, Blue Waters and the Ministry of Sport…

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News day / YVONNE WEBB MINISTER of Local Government and Rural Development Kazim Hosein has told residents of Moruga that the Bailey bridge he opened at Sixth Company, Circular Road last Friday, is safe. He said this is the third Bailey bridge constructed in a rural community through the Wooden Bridge Replacement Programme during his…

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News day / NALINEE SEELAL SHORTLY after being arrested yesterday, as he was walking back to a quarry in Valencia where he was hiding, a 38-year-old handyman/mason of Lawrence Village, Guapo, Pt Fortin expressed remorse and gave a confession statement to police, stating that in a fit of uncontrollable rage, he murdered his one-time lover…

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News day / RYAN HAMILTON-DAVIS Two Heineken fans won tickets to the second leg of the Champion’s League semi-finals,last Wednesday, in dramatic fashion, during the third annual Heineken “Share the Drama” promotion held at Digicel IMAX in One Woodbrook Place. Stuart Telfer and Cheyne Jobson were the first of seven winners in the promotion, who…

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News day / OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, this country’s first female prime minister, wrote a letter on the weekend to former Appeal Court judge Paula Mae Weekes, exhorting her to “go brave”, as she prepares today to take up the mantle not only as this country’s sixth President but its first ever female Head of…

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News day / ARCHBISHOP of Port of Spain Jason Gordon, Chief Celebrant at the mass commemorating the Feast of St Joseph that took place at First Capital Park following a procession from the St Joseph RC Church yesterday, told the congregation that TT desperately need the gift of fatherhood, which he likened to St Joseph….

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News day / RICHARDSON DHALAI THE Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) together with the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) and the Emancipation Support Committee (ESC) have pointed out that any attempt to interfere in the internal electoral process in Venezuela, could destabilise the entire Caricom region. Addressing a media conference at the OWTU’s Paramount Building…

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News day / JADA LOUTOO FORMER Chief Justice Michael de La Bastide thinks the prospect of having Chief Justice Ivor Archie “off the scene” has some attraction. It could mean the “voices now raised at an unusually high pitch” might be lowered for the current imbroglio surrounding this country’s third-highest office-holder to be resolved more…

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News day / THE Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (ttff) is partnering with the British Council to strengthen the business and entrepreneurial skills of the local film-maker. In keeping with the ttff’s film-industry development programme 15 experienced film-makers will come together for for a three-day workshop on project proposal writing and pitching from March 23…

News day / Crystal Abraham is 33, unmarried, and childless. She is an educator and writer, and in her free time she enjoys reading, hiking, and singing. Crystal is a practising Catholic, teaches confirmation in her parish church, and is also involved in the parish’s outreach programme to displaced persons. Crystal is currently undergoing treatment…

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News day / PAUL DeVerteuil and Brian Jackson both won titles when the IRP Fire and Safety Limited Senior Graded Open tournament concluded at the Queen’s Park Cricket Club Racquet Centre in St Clair, on Saturday. In the A Division final, DeVerteuil defeated Julian Chin 11-8, 11-5, 11-5 to claim the title. Brandon DeMontrichard outlasted…

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News day / LAUREL V WILLIAMS and RYAN HAMILTON-DAVIS PRAYERS, prayers and more prayers led to the capture of the suspect in last Tuesday’s gruesome murders of four people in La Brea. That was the view of relatives of the murder victims when told yesterday of the suspect’s arrest at a quarry in Valencia. “We…

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News day / RICHARDSON DHALAI PRIME Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s statement that internal politics within the PNM administration of deceased former prime minister Patrick Manning, led to a 12-year delay in the Vieux Fort housing project, was met with shock and bewilderment by Manning’s widow Hazel Manning, who yesterday gave an account of the project…

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News day / BODYBUILDER and avid fitness enthusiast Evan Jackson, is hoping the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs or a Good Samaritan, could come to his assistance as he is now homeless after struggling to find full-time employment over the past three years. Jackson, now 30 years old, started bodybuilding in 2014 after trying…

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News day / JALISA PATRICK is the first winner of the First Citizens Sports Foundation (FCSF) and Nalis Trivia Challenge. Patrick, 17, received a sports watch and bank account valued at $1,000 from First Citizens on March 14, at the National Library. The challenge is an online sports quiz intended to foster an interest in…

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The Trinidad Guardian / Madame Justice Paula-Mae Weekes takes the oath of office this morning at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain, in a ceremony which will be witnessed by hundreds at the venue and thousands of others who will view the event live on national television. She will become the country’s first female President and…

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The Trinidad Guardian / Over the past few weeks the parents of swimmers who have been selected to represent T&T at the March 31 to April 5 Carifta Swimming Championships in Jamaica have been raising questions about the cost for their children to represent this country at the event. ASATT has selected 25 swimmers and…

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The Trinidad Guardian / Minister of Community Development, Culture and the Arts, Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly will deliver the feature address and formally commission the refurbished New Village Community Centre at Pilgrim Street, New Village, Point Fortin on Tuesday, March 20, at 2 pm. The completion of this facility is part of the Ministry’s ongoing Community…

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The Trinidad Guardian / A Marabella man who was shot by police after he allegedly drew a gun at them is in serious condition at hospital. The 25-year-old man, of Battoo Avenue, was shot once in the chest and three times in his legs. Police said the man had a Glock 17 pistol loaded with…